a-maze-ing. Final presentation of the spatial wiki

A participative Installation by Stefan Endewardt and Anne Kohl

a-maze-ing is a participative installation for a collective (re-)construction of the surrounding space in form of a Spatial Wiki. We understand a-maze-ing as a structure in which different space generating elements are joined together. a-maze-ing wants to provide an installative access to different, multisensitive examinations of the surrounding space and confront them with one another. Thus the concrete space is reflected and documented, at the same time a filtered, multidimensional and intersubjective perspective of the space is developed.

To implement a-maze-ing we develop the form of the Spatial Wiki. The word Wiki is taken from the computer world and designates a software which provides a structure which allows to include different contents. Users cannot only read these contents, but mostly directly work with, change or refine them online. Wikis enable different authors to work together in a contentbased structure. We are interested in this very structure of the Wiki, in which a text – or other content – is formed and transformed on a constant yet processual level by many authors and thus by a multitude of experiences and knowledge.

The idea of the Spatial Wiki wants to materialize this contentbased structure and thus transform and bring it into physical space. It provides the structure into which contents can be implemented and thus aims at linking the concrete space (the neighborhood's protagonists and fields of action) with its artistic examination. Contents can be communicated and implemented into the Wiki via different formats. Possible contents are contributions of examining the surrounding space (Wiki as a space of documentation and archiving), designing parts of the Wiki structure (Wiki as a space of creative activity) or different formats such as artist-tandems, workshops, readings etc. (Wiki as social space of community). The potential of the Spatial Wiki compared to digital Wikis is its accessibility to all senses, so that beyond the usual media video and audio also olfactory, gustatory and haptic elements can be used.

Realisation – Warsaw – Praga

In Warsaw-Praga we want to explore the neighborhood together with different groups of locals, offering a half-day long Wiki-Workshop-Walk. In the walks we will focus on changes and strategies of appropriation within the neighborhood, to learn about how these are perceived but also influenced by those who we walk with. Possible centers of these examinations could be the formal and informal use of abandoned or formerly abandoned buildings, the construction of new and the demolition of old buildings, the presence of old and new cafés, stores and the like. The participants will collect those impressions in form of pictures, stories, sounds etc. which will be integrated into the Spatial Wiki. For creating these artefacts basic competences will be taught in workshops, like building and using a D.I.Y. camera obscura or using technical equipment for the Sound Walk.

As the basic structure of the Spatial Wiki we will build a construction of racks. The heart of this construction will be a map of the neighborhood in Warsaw-Praga in which these examinations can be marked, using a number functioning as a link that will lead to the spot within the construction where the corresponding artefact can be found.

A collection of the material from Mariannenplatz (Berlin) will be part of the Spatial Wiki in Warsaw-Praga. a-maze-ing thus knots the Mariannenplatz in Berlin with the new place in Warsaw into a real-fictitious space.